Our Journey Together (Mark 8:27-29)

 In meetings with our worship team, I listened as they talked about today’s worship service, and how it was going to have a camp theme, and it was really cool, because I could tell that our camping ministry was important to them, that it was meaningful to them, and that it had had an impact on them—even if they themselves have never been to camp.

It reinforces what I often tell other pastors, that our regional church’s camping ministry benefits the entire congregation, not just the campers we send. It enriches congregational life. It enriches the spiritual life of the whole church.

At camp, there are formal times dedicated for spiritual learning, like keynote times and worship. But spiritual learning also takes place every minute of every day, as we form and sustain a Christian community for a week. And spiritual enrichment takes place as we eat meals together, as we play games together,  and as we walk from one area of camp to another.

Today’s scripture talks about a time when Jesus and his disciples were walking from one place to another. It wasn’t a time of formal instruction, just Jesus and his followers having conversation as they made their way down the road.

To me, it really does seem like something that could have easily happened at camp, because at camp, that’s when some of the most meaningful conversations take place—the conversations and the lessons that campers will remember for the rest of their lives.

To give you an idea of how meaningful walks like these can be: at Community of the Great Commission, the Disciples camp in northern California, the dining hall was at the far end of the camp. From the main program area, where the cabins were and where most of the activities took place, to the dining hall, was almost a half mile. 

And so we’d start making our way to the dining hall about 15 or 20 minutes before each meal.

Well, a few years before I left that region, they built a brand new dining hall, right in the middle of camp, cutting the distance in half. 

And the older campers, the ones in high school who had been going to camp for many years, were actually sad, because those walks to the dining hall had become so meaningful to them, and they recognized the value of just walking together and talking.

So Jesus and his disciples were walking. They were on their way to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And in the course of their conversation, Jesus asked his disciples: 

“Who do people say that I am?”

And they gave various answers, perhaps thinking to themselves, “this is an easy question.” They’d heard various people say that Jesus was John the Baptist, or Elijah, or one of the prophets, come back to life.

But Jesus wasn’t done. That question was just the warm-up.

Jesus asked them a second question, and this one was intended to make them really think: “Who do YOU say I am?”

It just got more personal, didn’t it?

I still remember those exams I took in high school, in A.P. U.S. History. Some of the questions had a very simple answer: “In what year did Lincoln give the Gettysburg Address?” 1863. November 19, 1863, to be exact. Easy.

But then, there would appear a question like this: “How did Lincoln use the language of the Declaration of Independence in the Gettysburg Address to redefine the purpose of the Civil War?”

This question involves more than memorizing dates or regurgitating data. It involves analisis, it involves critical thinking, and it requires you to form your own conclusions based on what you have learned.

Jesus’ second question to his disciples is like that.

It was Peter who responded. Peter said, “You are the Messiah.” 

That’s all he says here in Mark’s gospel, but in Matthew and Luke’s gospels, when Peter responds to this question, he adds: “You are the son of the living God.”

Based on Peter’s statement, we in the Disciples of Christ denomination ask only one question of people who want to join and become members. We ask:

Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ (“Christ” is just another word for “messiah”), the son of the living God, Lord and Savior of the world?

And, hopefully, when you answer, you’ve given it some thought. Hopefully you’ve thought about what the words in that statement mean. What does it mean to believe? What does Christ mean? What do the words “Lord and Savior” mean?

In a minute, I’m going to ask some of our youth who went to camp some questions. Questions they’ve thought about. Questions that, hopefully, their time at camp has prepared them for.

But I will say one more thing…

On the website of our denomination—disciples.org—if you search around for a bit, you’ll find a page about our denomination’s identity statement, followed by twelve principles of identity. The first principle of identity listed states the following:

“We confess that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and proclaim him Lord and Savior of the world, requiring nothing more – and nothing less – as a basis of our life together.”

I am thankful that, this summer, I had the opportunity to accompany an amazing group of 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders on their week-long journey at camp. I am thankful that we are all on a journey together, here at First Christian Church, engaging in discussion, asking questions of one another, and growing in faith together just as the disciples did as they journeyed with Jesus. I’m thankful that we are in covenant with a larger movement of several thousand congregations, scattered across the United States and Canada, because the more companions we have on this journey, the more enriching our conversations become.

Take Up Your Cross (Mark 8:31-38)

 Imagine that you were there, with the disciples, or that you were one of the disciples, and Jesus starts explaining to you how he must undergo great suffering, be rejected, and be killed. 

You have no knowledge of how this story ends. You don’t know about Easter, or resurrection, because those things haven’t happened yet.

In your mind, Jesus is God’s anointed one, sent to establish a new kingdom, over which he will rule with justice, just as King David ruled over a united Israel and Judah many generations past.

So when Jesus says that he will soon undergo great suffering, be rejected by the authorities, put on trial, and executed, it doesn’t make sense. You wonder: Is he serious?

And he mentions something about rising, but that doesn’t make any sense to you. Death is final—who knows what Jesus means by that?

So, when Peter rebukes Jesus, he’s just saying out loud what you and all the others are thinking. None of you wants to think about dying. Who wants to think about dying? I’m not going to die, you’re not going to die, and Jesus—yes! God forbid that Jesus ever die!

Let’s not even think about dying!

And yet, Jesus does want us to think about dying. He wants us to think about his dying; he wants us to know that he will die, and that his dying will not be from old age.

And, Jesus wants us to think about our own dying. “If your focus is on saving your life,” he says, “then you will lose it. But if you lose your life for my sake and for the sake of the gospel, then you will save it.”  ……

Rabbi Sharon Brous wrote a book that was just published a few weeks ago called The Amen Effect: Ancient Wisdom to Mend our Broken Hearts and World, which I am currently reading. 

In one chapter, she tells the story of Robert, a member of her community, who was diagnosed with cancer, and told he had just a short time to live. Robert said that when he got his diagnosis, “his whole life came into sharp focus. His love of his daughter and wife was so profound and vivid he could almost touch it. He was determined to make every moment matter.

“But then, only a couple of weeks later, Robert's oncologist called with wonderful, improbable news: the initial diagnosis had been inaccurate; the tumor was benign.” 

Robert said when he found out that he wasn’t about to die, “his sense of gratitude, wonder, and connectedness faded almost immediately.”

So, when Robert thought he was going to die, he started truly living; but then, when he found out he wasn’t going to die, at least not anytime soon, he stopped living so fully.

What is it about knowing we are about to die that makes us live life more meaningfully, and why can’t we find that meaning and purpose without that grim diagnosis? As Rabbi Rous writes, “What would it take for us to feel that urgency, lean into that purpose, without standing at the edge of death?”

I don’t know if we can. Maybe we need to come to terms with dying in order to truly live. Maybe that’s the only way.

As you know, many congregations are dying. This is a difficult time for houses of worship. But few are willing to face their dying head-on.

Many of these congregations live in denial. “Well, maybe things will get better,” they say. If anyone does have thoughts about the congregation’s dying, they keep those thoughts to themselves, and never say them out loud. They never talk about death so openly… as Jesus did.

But there are some congregations that, faced with their imminent death, have said quite openly, “we’re dying, and since we’re dying, we’re going to go out with a bang. We’re going to life as if this year is our last, because it quite likely is. We’re going to do all we can to help as many people as we can, for as long as we can, giving even more to our community…” 

Which is actually the opposite of what all those churches-in-denial do, because they usually hold back from doing any outreach, because they are so focused on their own survival.

But often, those congregations who decide to go out with a bang, and who increase their outreach giving, knowing that they are about to fade away, draw attention. People are attracted to a congregation that is doing so much for others, even though the congregation has so little to sustain itself.

And sometimes, this attention draws more interest, and more visitors start showing up, and more people start joining the church, because this kind of self-sacrificial ministry is what interests them. They want to be part of a church that is doing something, making a difference, even if that church is only going to be around a few more years.

They’re not interested in joining a church that continues to limp along, doing very little except trying to prolong its own existence.

That church, the church that is so concerned with its own survival, will eventually die, because it’s not doing anything. Some would say that it has already died, it just hasn’t admitted or acknowledged that yet.

But the church that said “we’re dying, let’s go out with a bang…” Sometimes, because of the people who noticed how much it was doing for the community around it, a church like that begins to grow, and ends up finding new life. It’s happened, and it was a great, happy surprise to the people of those congregations who thought they were about to die. They said, “Let’s go out with a bang,” but they ended up getting new life.

“Those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.”

A church that is willing to die, or risk dying, for the sake of the world around it, is a church people want to be part of. They want to be part of a church like that, because that is a church that is making a difference. 

That’s part of the upside-down kingdom of God, where everything works differently than we expect. The greatest is the one who serves. The first become last, and the last become first. The rich go hungry, and the poor eat until they are full… and those willing to die are the ones who find life renewed. 

Many years ago, I was meeting with a group of church leaders who were discussing what they could do to stop their congregation’s decline. That was the number one question on their minds. One of them began the meeting by stating the question out loud: “What can we do to keep our doors open?”

I looked at her and said, “Keep them open for what?” The look on her face told me that she didn’t understand, so I said: “Why is it important for the church to keep its doors open?”

She said, “So the church doesn’t die.”

And I responded, “Why not let it die? What’s so important about keeping the church alive?”

And she couldn’t answer.

Now, if that church leader had responded, “We need to keep the church open because it tends to the physical, spiritual, emotional, and mental needs of its members and the community around it… 

If she had responded, “We need to keep the church open because it is a beacon of hope to the community…

If she had responded, “We need to keep the church open because of all the ways we bring wholeness to a fragmented world…

If she had responded, “We need to keep the church open because it is a mission outpost of God’s kingdom, working for all things right and just in the world…

…If she had said any of those things, she would have been closer to the truth…

And it would have been even better if she had said, “Whether the church stays open or not is up to God, as long as we focus on what’s really important, what we’re called to do: living out the self-sacrificial love of Christ in all we do, following Christ’s way by denying ourselves and taking up our own cross for his sake.”

And, yes, I understand how hard it is to say such things, because every church I’ve been a part of, I’ve wanted to see it succeed, I’ve wanted to see it grow, I’ve wanted to see it prosper. And it is my hope that First Christian Church succeeds, grows, and prospers. 

In fact, if I’m being honest, I probably care about such things a little too much. If I’m being honest, my thinking probably isn’t all that much different from the thinking of that church leader who I had that conversation with all those years ago. If I’m being honest, my mind is too often set on these human things, and not on divine things…

Which is why I’m pretty sure I’d be agreeing with Peter when he cuts Jesus off, refusing to accept that Jesus will suffer and die. It’s not what I want.

But unlike Peter, I do know how the story ends. And actually, Peter would know how the story ends, too, if he had listened to everything Jesus said: that, after three days, he would rise again; that those who are willing to lose their lives for Christ’s sake and for the sake of the gospel, will find their lives renewed and restored.

I guess the question is: do we have enough faith to believe that? Do we have enough faith to believe that, if we risk dying for Christ, that we will find our life renewed?

It’s like the decision Harry Potter had to make in the series of books by J.K. Rowling. Say what you will about the author—her own statements in recent years have been a great disappointment to many—but the most remarkable thing about the stories is how Harry Potter discovered that, in order to defeat Lord Voldemort, he, Harry, had to die. Only Harry Potter’s death—given willingly and sacrificially for those he loved—would allow him to achieve victory.

That’s the same decision Christians are faced with every day: Do we live for ourselves, or do we live sacrificially, for others? Is it possible for us to love the world so much—to love neighbors we don’t know, neighbors we’ve never meet, and even neighbors we have met and find difficult to love—can we love them anyway, to the point that we are willing to do what is right for them, even at great cost to ourselves?

By this measure, this standard, I know I come up woefully short. I fail at this all the time. It’s hard. It’s hard, even though I know that, in the end, new life will spring forth, that death leads to life, and that love overcomes all.

That’s what Lent reminds us. Lent begins in winter, when the world is cold, frozen, and when all appears lifeless—yet Lent ends in spring, when new life appears. And God is faithful, and the spring returns every year.

Lent begins in darkness. But already the days are getting longer, and by the time Easter arrives, we’ll have more hours of sunlight than hours of darkness. 

Lent leads us through death. We follow Christ on the road to Jerusalem. We feel the love he showed to his disciples at the meal he knew would be his last. We hear the soldiers arrive and arrest him—and we hear the protests of the disciples. But the disciples soon fall into silence, as the self-sacrificial path becomes too much for them. They value their own lives too much to follow Jesus all the way to the cross.

And then, death comes on Good Friday.

But after that, on Sunday: resurrection! New life! And Jesus, full of compassion and love, greets his disciples, and entrusts the building of God’s kingdom to them. There is mercy and forgiveness, for the disciples are only human, and they are willing to keep walking with Christ, learning a little more every day about how they are called, even now, to love the world with the same love Christ had; how they are to live out that love, sacrificially, for Christ’s sake and for the sake of the world he came to save.

And every day I ponder that love, and how I can grow that love in me, and how we can grow that love in our church. 

We’re on the right path, I think. We do give, in many ways, of ourselves, to those around us. We have a strong ReachOut ministry that I’m still learning about, and in so many other ways, we are showing true love to our community and our world. The love that is present here is genuine, and the prayers we offer up for one another and for the world are sincere. 

There is so much sacrificial love present in this congregation and in the lives of you who are committed to this ministry, not just for the sake of the ministry, “to keep the lights on and the doors open,” but for the sake of the world we are called to serve.

We are on the right path.

But still, Christ calls us further. To keep walking. To keep growing in love. To keep growing in faith. To keep walking, humbly, with God and with one another, trusting in God to lead us, each and every day.

Sermon: "Take Up Your Cross" Mark 8:31-38

Jesus was talking about his own life.

“The human one must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the legal experts, and be killed…”

Peter didn’t understand.

Suffer many things? Be rejected? Be killed?

No, no, no, Jesus. What about the movement?  What about the kingdom?...

Peter joined the movement because he believed they were about to do something big. Jesus said, “Follow me,” and Peter did. Peter accepted Jesus’ invitation because Peter believed they were about to change the world. He committed himself to being a disciple because he believed that they were going to replace Roman rule with the rule of God!

How could any of that happen if Jesus, their leader, was rejected and killed?

Peter knew that if they were going to accomplish all they hoped to accomplish, then what Jesus said could not be. It was impossible that their movement could succeed if Jesus was rejected and killed.

Jesus must not have meant what he said.

But he did mean it.

And… there was more...

Jesus said, “it’s not just me who must lose his life. All who want to come after me must say no to themselves, deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow me. All who want to save their lives will lose them. But all who lose their lives because of me and because of the good news will save them.”

Say no to yourself. Deny yourself. Take up your cross… All who want to save their lives will lose them.

That’s asking quite a lot, don’t you think?

This is a hard, hard teaching for Peter.

This is a hard, hard teaching for all disciples.

This is a hard, hard teaching for any today who seek to follow Jesus.

Deny yourself. Take up your cross. Be willing to lose your life in order to save it.

Preachers don’t want to preach this message. Preachers want to preach messages that draw people in. This isn’t a message that draws people in.

Two preachers were once talking about their churches, asking each other how things were going, and the first preacher said “things are going pretty well… the church has grown and we’re up to 1,000 members!”

The second preacher replied, “Well, things are going pretty well for me, too. We started with 1,000 members, but I’ve preached that congregation down to about ten…”

And it’s true… churches that have 1,000 members or 10,000 members often preach about how God will bless them if they are faithful, that God will give them riches and prosperity if they just lift God’s name up in praise and prayer.

And a lot of churches that grow will preach about how we sinned, but Jesus paid the price for us, Jesus took our place on the cross, paid our debt, so that we can be free to live the life God desires for us.

However, in what we heard today, there is no “dying on the cross in our place.” Jesus didn’t die on the cross so that we don’t have to.

Jesus tells us to take up our own cross. Jesus tells us to deny ourselves. Jesus tells us to be willing to lose our life for his sake and for the sake of the gospel.

The idea of Jesus “taking our place” doesn’t come from the Bible. It first originated about 1,000 years after Jesus. It began with Anselm of Canterbury, a Benedictine monk and archbishop, who said: Instead of losing our life, instead of carrying our cross, instead of being crucified with Christ (as Paul puts it), let’s say that Christ died in our place. Let’s say that Christ took our place and died on the cross so that we don’t have to. Let’s say that Christ paid the price, and set us free to live.

Obviously, Anselm’s idea doesn’t match with the whole “deny yourself & take up your cross” thing.

And what does Anselm’s idea say about God?

According to Anselm and his “Jesus died in our place” idea, God demands death as punishment for sin. The Bible says that the wages of sin is death, but it doesn’t say that it is God who demands death. What kind of a God demands death? What kind of a God demands blood? What kind of a God is unable think of a better, more creative solution? What kind of a God sends his son to die, because death is the only solution? ...because someone has to die?

Talk about an idea lacking in creativity. If God is God, couldn’t God come up with something better than that?

Let’s say a person sins by killing another person. The judge finds him guilty and he is sentenced to death. But then the judge’s son arrives, and the judge says to the guilty one, “if you say you’re sorry, then I’ll have my son die in your place.”

Well, why does anyone have to die? Why can’t the judge (who, in this case, is all-powerful) just overturn the death penalty and find a more creative, constructive, restorative solution by which the repentant murder can pay back his debt to society?

I talk to friends and relatives who have given up on faith, and this idea is one of the reasons why they have given up. “How can you worship a God who demands death? A God who says you must die, but then makes his own son die in your place, because somebody must die.” They find they cannot worship this “somebody must die” God, and so they lose their faith.

And I don’t blame them.

Now, this doesn’t change the fact that Jesus did die. On the path to a better theology, we do have that to deal with...

Yes, Jesus died. He was killed. But he wasn’t killed to satisfy God. He was killed because he proclaimed a kingdom that was a threat to those who abuse and oppress, and they would not stand for it.

Imagine a parent sending their son or daughter off to war. The parent doesn’t want the son or daughter to die. But the parent does want them to do what is right, to defend their honor and the honor of their nation. And defending one’s honor and the honor of one’s nation may in fact mean facing death.

Or, imagine the parents of a civil rights activist. That civil rights activist is out there, fighting for rights, fighting for justice. Do the parents of that activist want their son or daughter to die? Of course not. But they do want that son or daughter to do the noble work they are called to do, and they want them to keep doing that important work, because it is what gives life meaning.

They don’t demand their child’s death. But they do insist that their son or daughter follow their call, and do what is right, no matter the cost. Even if that means risking their life.

Lots of people have faced death by living out their call from God. Martin Luther King. Oscar Romero Maximilian Kolbe. Just to name a few.

God didn’t demand their death. Yet death came to them, because they were committed to following Jesus no matter the cost.

God gave Jesus a mission, to proclaim a new kingdom, to set the oppressed free, to bring wholeness to the world.

It was inevitable that he would die, not because it was what God wanted or demanded, but because sometimes that is the price of following one’s call. In Jesus’ case, the rulers and authorities of this world could not stand to have someone challenge the way they had constructed the world. They would stop at nothing to silence him.

And because we are followers of Jesus, we share his mission, his purpose. It is now our job to proclaim a new kingdom, to set the oppressed free, to bring wholeness to the world.

And there are people today who do not like the message we are called to proclaim.

We are called to proclaim a world in which the poor are lifted up… and there are people in the world who do not like that message.

We are called to proclaim a world in which Black lives matter… and there are people in the world who do not like that message.

We are called to proclaim a world in which gays and lesbians and transgender people are affirmed… and there are people in the world who do not like that message.

We are called to proclaim a world in which immigrants and refugees find a home… and there are people who do not like that message.

We are called to proclaim a world in which women are respected and given a voice… and there are people who do not like that message.

We are called to proclaim a world in which people, before acting, take into consideration the rights of their neighbor and not just their own right to do something… and there are people who do not like that message.

We are called to proclaim a world in which people of all races, ages, genders, sexualities, ethnicities, incomes, religions, and nationalities come together as one people, united,...and there are people who do not like that message.

We are called to proclaim a world in which life is sacred, a world in which guns are regulated so that they do not find their way into the hands of people who would use them to commit harm to other humans...and there are people who do not like that message.

The message Jesus calls us to proclaim, the message Jesus calls us to live by and to live out, will not be welcomed by all. If you follow Jesus faithfully, they will try to silence you. They will try to oppress you. They will try to discredit you. And yes, if your voice is loud enough, they may even try to kill you.

But you will have spoken. You will have shined your light. You will have helped make God’s kingdom a reality on earth.

This past week, the world has seen young survivors of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida speaking out, demanding that our society put people first, put human lives first, put children first… instead of

placing the sales of guns as their first priority.

These young people have shown great courage and boldness. They are speaking Truth, but there are people who do not like their message of Truth. Already, there are those who are trying to silence their voices. The gun manufacturers, the NRA… their profits will be hurt if society pays too much attention to the young prophets in Florida and across the country. And they will try to silence them…already they are spreading false rumors, and creating fictitious conspiracy theories, and spreading them about.

The same thing happened following the release of the movie Black Panther. This movie has brought empowerment to African Americans. And not everyone likes this. Some are trying to discredit it. They’re making up rumors of Black mobs intimidating or attacking white moviegoers, spreading these rumors through social media.

In the same way, lies are spread concerning Muslims and other minority groups. Russian influencers as well as white nationalists in America fabricate rumors to discredit and silence those who advocate for peace and understanding and truth.

Yet we are still called to do just that: to advocate for peace and understanding and truth. We are called to follow Jesus, no matter the cost.

Jesus says: “take up your cross. Follow me. Say no to yourself, deny yourself, and proclaim the message I have given you.”

Yes, the world may ridicule you, persecute you, try to silence you. And in rare cases, yes, the world may try to kill you. But Jesus makes this promise:

Those who lose their live for my sake and for the sake of the gospel will find their life renewed. If you lose your life, you will save it. If you lose your life, you will be made whole.

God demonstrated this when he rose Jesus from the dead. The world killed him, but God rose Jesus back to life. The world broke Jesus’ body, but God made Jesus whole.

And we have that promise, repeated in scripture, that all who are crucified with Christ will be resurrected with Christ. All who die in Christ will live in Christ.

And when the world breaks the body of Christ because of the message we proclaim, God will make us whole. When the world takes away our life because we are living faithfully to our calling, then God will give us new life. When the world beats us down, God will raise us up. When the world tears us apart, God will put us back together.

Because God is love, and love is stronger than death, and love always has the last word.